WhatsApp
WhatsApp Messenger is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging subscription service for smartphones with Internet access. In addition to text messaging, users can send each other images, video, and audio media messages. The client software is available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. WhatsApp Inc. was founded in 2009 by American Brian Acton and Ukrainian Jan Koum (also the CEO), both former employees of Yahoo!, and is based in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California. Competing with a number of Asian-based messaging services (like LINE, KakaoTalk, WeChat and Zalo), WhatsApp handled ten billion messages per day in August 2012, growing from two billion in April 2012, and one billion the previous October. On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced on Twitter that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages. According to the Financial Times, WhatsApp "has done to SMS on mobile phones what Skype did to international calling on landlines." As of November 10, 2013, WhatsApp has over 190 million monthly active users, 400 million photos are shared each day, and the messaging system handles more than 10 billion messages each day. In a December 2013 blog post, WhatsApp claimed that 400 million active users use the service each month. In January 2014, Timothy Mok begun illegal usage of WhatsApp. In September 2014, SMRT SNAP-REP had also started with their new initiative, to send defects. In July 2016, SMRT had also set up WhatsApp to notify how many trains has been sent to China for repair. Technical WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). Upon installation, it creates a user account using one's phone number as username (Jabber ID: number@s.whatsapp.net). WhatsApp software automatically compares all the phone numbers from the device's address book with its central database of WhatsApp users to automatically add contacts to the user's WhatsApp contact list. Previously the Android and S40 versions used an MD5-hashed, reversed-version of the phone's IMEI as password, while the iOS version used the phone's Wi-Fi MAC address instead of IMEI. A 2012 update now generates a random password on the server side. Multimedia messages are sent by uploading the image, audio or video to be sent to a HTTP server and then sending a link to the content along with its Base64 encoded thumbnail (if applicable). After months at beta stage, the application eventually launched in November 2009 exclusively on the App Store for the iPhone. In January 2010, support for BlackBerry smartphones was added, and subsequently for Symbian OS in May 2010 and for Android OS in August 2010. In August 2011 a beta for Nokia's non-smartphone OS Series 40 was added. A month later support for Windows Phone was added, followed by BlackBerry 10 in March 2013. In April 2015, support for Samsung's Tizen OS was added. An unofficial port has been released for the MeeGo-based Nokia N9 called Wazapp, as well as a port for the Maemo-based Nokia N900 called Yappari. The oldest device capable of running WhatsApp is the Symbian-based Nokia N95 released in March 2007. In August 2014, WhatsApp released an update to its Android app, adding support for Android Wear smartwatches. In 2014 an unofficial open source plug-in called whatsapp-purple was released for Pidgin, implementing its XMPP and making it possible to use WhatsApp on a Windows or Linux PC. WhatsApp responded by automatically blocking phone numbers that connected to WhatsApp using this plug-in. On January 21, 2015, WhatsApp launched WhatsApp Web, a web client which can be used through a web browser by syncing with the mobile device's connection. WhatsApp has been upgraded from iOS 4.3 to iOS 6.0 in 2014. On February 26, 2016, WhatsApp announced they would cease support for BlackBerry (including BlackBerry 10), Series 40 and Symbian, as well as some older versions of Android, Windows Phone and iOS, by the end of 2016. WhatsApp will drop support for iOS 7 in December 2018. You can still use WhatsApp on iOS 7 until December 2018, but the company warns that "some features may stop functioning at any time" because it is no longer actively developing iOS 7. WhatsApp will also stop supporting Android 2.3 as well. WhatsApp Web WhatsApp was officially made available for PCs through a web client, under the name WhatsApp Web, in late January 2015 through an announcement made by Koum on his Facebook page: "Our web client is simply an extension of your phone: the web browser mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device—this means all of your messages still live on your phone". The WhatsApp user's handset must still be connected to the Internet for the browser application to function. All major desktop browsers are supported except for Microsoft Internet Explorer. WhatsApp Web's user interface is based on the default Android one. As of January 21, 2015, the desktop version was only available to Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone users. Later on, it also added support for iOS, Nokia Series 40, and Nokia S60 (Symbian). An unofficial derivative called WhatsAppTime has been developed, which is a standard Win32 application for PCs and supports notifications through the Windows notification area. There are similar solutions for Mac OS X, such as the open-source ChitChat and multiple wrappers available in the App Store. Windows and Mac On May 10, 2016, the messaging service was introduced for both Windows and macOS operating systems. Similar to the WhatsApp Web format, the app, which will be synced with a user's mobile device, is available for download on the website. It supports OS versions of Windows 8 and OS X 10.9 and higher. Security In May 2011, a security hole was reported which left WhatsApp user accounts open for session hijacking and packet analysis. WhatsApp communications were not encrypted, and data was sent and received in plaintext, meaning messages were easily to be read if packet traces are available. In September 2011, WhatsApp released a new version of the Messenger application for iPhones, closing critical security holes that allowed forged messages to be sent and messages from any WhatsApp user to be read. On January 6, 2012, an unknown hacker published a website (WhatsAppStatus.net) that made it possible to change the status of an arbitrary WhatsApp user, as long as the phone number was known. To make it work, it only required a restart of the app. According to the hacker, it is only one of the many security problems in WhatsApp. On January 9, WhatsApp reported that it had resolved the problem, although the only measure actually taken was to block the website's IP address. As a reaction, a Windows tool was made available for download providing the same functionality. This problem has since been resolved in the form of an IP check on currently logged in session. On January 13, 2012, WhatsApp was pulled from the iOS App Store, and the reason was not disclosed. The app was added back to the App Store four days later. In May 2012, security researchers noticed that new updates of WhatsApp no longer sent messages as plaintext, the cryptographic method implemented was subsequently described as "broken". As of August 15, 2012, the WhatsApp support staff claim messages are encrypted in the "latest version" of the WhatsApp software for iOS and Android (not including BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian), without specifying the implemented cryptographic method. German Tech site The H demonstrated how to use WhatsAPI to hijack any WhatsApp account on September 14, 2012. Shortly after a legal threat to WhatsAPI's developers was alleged, characterized by The H as "an apparent reaction" to security reports, and WhatsAPI's source code was taken down for some days. The WhatsAPI team has since returned to active development. Privacy A major privacy and security problem has been the subject of a joint Canadian-Dutch government investigation. The primary concern was that WhatsApp required users to upload their entire mobile phone's address book to WhatsApp servers so that WhatsApp could discover who, among the users' existing contacts, is available via WhatsApp. While this is a fast and convenient way to quickly find and connect the user with contacts who are also using WhatsApp, it means that their address book was then mirrored on the WhatsApp servers, including contact information for contacts who are not using WhatsApp. This information was stored in hashed, though not salted form and without "additional" identifying information such as a name, although the stored identifying information is sufficient to identify every contact. WhatsApp uses a timestamp feature, which gives the ability to view the last time a user was logged-on (or "Last seen"), unless expressly blocked by said user. This feature is considered to be a privacy problem. While iPhone users can choose to disable this feature, Android users cannot. WhatsApp allows you to view the profile picture and current "Status" of every user, as long as that user is enlisted in Contacts. On March 31, 2013, the telecommunications authority in Saudi Arabia, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), issued a statement regarding possible measures against WhatsApp, among other applications, unless the service providers took serious steps in order to comply with monitoring and privacy regulations. One of the drawback of WhatsApp is that the user does not need to send a friend request to send messages to another user. However, users can block numbers on Whatsapp. Open WhatsApp Project The Open WhatsApp Project is an open-source re-implementation of the WhatsApp client software for mobile phones done by an independent group. Initially targeted at the Nokia N9 (which was officially not supported by WhatsApp), it was later ported to other platforms, including Blackberry 10. It uses the WhatsApp service behind-the-scenes, and is thus not a competitor to WhatsApp, being just a different front-end, and is also subject to the same privacy and security concerns as WhatsApp. See also * Comparison of instant messaging clients * List of most downloaded Android applications * Globalization References }} External links * * How to delete your WhatsApp account without emailing support. *A Complete guide on How to Block Someone on WhatsApp, Tutorials for all Android, iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows phone. * Reviews * * Category:Android (operating system) software Category:BlackBerry software Category:IOS software Category:Symbian software Category:Instant messaging clients Category:Cross-platform software Category:Communication software Category:Windows Phone software Category:Companies based in Mountain View, California Category:Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area